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Relluk
"Watch and wait; it was what I was built to do." -Wuki Origin Homeland: Underdark Cities: Relluk Isle Folk Strange living constructs from an age gone by; the primordial chaos runs in their veins. Relluks look like a thing from a forgotten time and a lost culture. Their bodies are of volcanic rock pressed into the shape of a crudely fashioned humanoid. The front of their torso features a stylized tribal face. On this face, mouths are typically large and tooth filled, noses are simple and roughly formed, and eyes are slanted ovals, half-circles, or crescents that flicker with orange fire. These torso-faces are unique to each body; vaguely similar only in style and proportion. Their upper arms are somewhat thin and featureless, with massive forearms that end bluntly in stubby-fingered mitts. A relluk’s legs resemble those of a muscular human. Channels of golden metal run in circuit-like stripes throughout the relluk’s frame. These circuits are dotted with circular disks, many of which feature round gemstones. The circuit pattern is as unique to the individual as the torso-face. Where a head might be on a humanoid is a large uncut crystal point that glows with heat and light. From this crystal, the relluk sees, hears, and speaks. Its voice sounds almost metallic, with many echoes and reverberations regardless of the environment in which they are speaking. A dense odor of boiling rock emanates from their bulky mass, along with a great deal of heat. The body of a relluk appears to be made of hard volcanic rock banded together with solid gold circuits. However, this is not entirely the case. Much of a relluk’s interior is actually a porous pumice-like stone riddled with hollow tubes. A living relluk is also full of hot water, steam, and ashy mud which they bleed when injured. The metal is actually mostly copper and nickel with only about 20% genuine gold. A relluk body yields about 30 gp worth of pure gold, which is hardly worth the time and energy it takes to process it. Unlike many other types of living constructs, relluks need both air and water in order to thrive. Their interior mechanisms mimic life through a complex internal elemental chaos of fire, water, air, and earth. Their soul crystal provides heat and the spark of life, while their bodies provide substance and form. Air and water must be added regularly. Without water, the relluk at first loses access to its breath of steam power, and then becomes brittle and likely dies from crumbling. Without air, the relluk behaves much like other life-forms; it slows down and dies. A relluk consumes water through grates around the soul-crystal head. Air intake holes are actually the “eyes” of the torso face. Most of the pseudo-biological processes inside a relluk have to do with the transfer and management of heat. This is the number one reason that they do not wear normal armor. While the relluk can expel heat from its torso mouth in the form of steam, this only provides temporary cooling. The circuits themselves radiate warmth, drawing heat away from the core of the body. Blocking this exit of heat from the body of a relluk causes it to slow down considerably. In addition, most armor does not fit a relluk's body shape and may obstruct the exit of steam or the intake of air. The skin of a relluk without the enhancement of armor gems is actually somewhat spongy despite its appearance, and many liken it to reptilian scales in suppleness. While uncomfortably hot to the touch by human standards (about 175 degrees Fahrenheit), it is still fairly cool compared to its crystal head (which is about 550 degree Fahrenheit). A relluk can greatly alter the consistency of its skin by adding armor gems, to the point of making the skin as hard as the stone it appears to be. One might assume that a relluk is either resistant to fire or cold, from its appearance and its ability to generate large amounts of heat, as well as thrive unharmed in its own scalding hot steam cloud. However, such is not the case. While they do not outwardly appear to be harmed by fire or cold, it does throw them terribly out of balance internally, which in turn causes damage within. However, in regards to their breath of steam ability, the expulsion of this steam provides just enough temporary cooling to help them withstand the duration of its effect externally. The composition and nature of the crystal head is the biggest mystery. The crystals are impervious to damage, and, aside from glowing softly, are completely inert when not inside a relluk body. While resembling natural hexagonal quartz points, these crystals are flawless. About 75% of the crystal rests inside the body of the relluk, to which it bonds until the body is destroyed. The remaining 25% acts as the head of the relluk; providing both visual and auditory input in some inexplicable fashion. History They stood for over a millennia in the dark recesses of the decaying temple; scores of them. Poised for combat, armed, and silently watching, these primitive statues lay undisturbed, unmoving, and largely forgotten for ages. When rediscovered about three centuries ago, they were a novel mystery. Some speculated they were part of a plan to save an ancient civilization from an attempt to purge them from the world. It was a plan that evidently failed. They are now only known by their mysterious and ancient ruins and relics; not the least of which was their army of strange stone soldiers and the huge iron molds that formed them from molten rock. Through time, they became a small wonder of the ancient world. It was a mogogol that discovered the ageless shipwreck in the cold waters. If it wasn’t for the accumulation of sea life, this now fossilized drakkar would have gone unnoticed. Inside, the mogogol found gold, gems, and thousands of unusual crystal points. The crystals glowed with unknown power and proved to be impervious to damage. Their purpose, however, was as great a secret as the standing statues on Relluk Isle a few hundred miles east. Still, it would take another two decades before someone would connect the two. They procured one of these crystal oddities and brought it to the statues on Relluk Isle. Each statue had a hexagonal fissure in its top. This opening was just the right size for the crystal point. Upon inserting the soul crystal, they witnessed the first Relluk roar to life. The previously cold and lifeless basalt first began to glow with heat. Then, with a great creaking stretch, it stepped deftly forward and asked in a dialect of common that had not been heard for a thousand years, “Who am I?” They came to be known as relluks, named after the isle that was likely named after them. It was not long before the whole lot of them bellowed to life and began a quest to figure out who and what they are. Almost instinctual memories of a bygone era led them to clues; hidden chambers, lost texts, and more ruins. The relluks puzzled together their history. Relluks were the product of a dead civilization facing a terrible threat; an enemy that they would not name for fear the deadly foe might take notice. Over the course of several decades, the doomed people forged a plan. They would craft an army of stone and steam that would strike fear into that which they feared. They worked diligently on mass producing the stone bodies. From what the relluks could discern, it was the crystal points that acted as the relluks’ soul and power source. Through some great disaster, crystal was not destined to meet stone until long after their creators had perished. More soul crystals could exist somewhere, yet to be found. When the relluks first came alive, there were only about five hundred relluk bodies left - the survivors of erosion, treasure hunters, vandals, and other such adversities common to all ancient relics. This provided something of a conundrum to the newly conscious relluks; their species was imminently doomed to extinction. However, guided by an almost instinctual memory of ages gone by mixed with a need to awaken the thousands of souls still sleeping in crystal form, they quickly unraveled the mystery of relluk body creation. The bodies must be created at a font of power using molten rock directly from a volcanic source, and generally take months of painstaking labor to complete. Luckily, the ancients left many of the necessary tools in place at the fonts of power, and production began very quickly. Category:Race Category:Construct